Tang Band W8-1772 Impressions.

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Well, OK. I have had little time to A/B's with the other drivers because they all go into the same cabinet, but I do have some good impressions as to overall sound. I did compare to FE207E's in a pair of BR's.

The overall sound of the 1772 is more relaxed than the 207, I presume because the 2.5kHz is much smaller. If fact, the sound is more like the F200A than the FE207E. The top end of the 1772 is much more extended, particularly off axis. This is the first 8" driver I have seen that it essentially flat out to 30* off axis. You can walk around the speakers and the sound remains the same. For general listening, I applied 3dB of BSC and 5dB of treble taper through DSP. (I have looked at a passive filter, but I think that will remain proprietary.)

There is a sweet spot. I have my speakers set on the corners of an 8' equilateral triangle and toed-in 10*. Imaging and sound stage are super. The sound stage is deeper than the 207. Singers are up front (a lot of this, well, all of this is the recording engineer's doings, but the drivers recover it well).

All in all, I like the 1772 better than the 207. Jury is out on a comparison to the DX3 as the sound is so different, and both drivers need to be in the same cabinets. Detail is adequate compared to the DX3 (as I remember!). Girl-and-a guitar and baroque violin/archlute are breathtaking. With the 1772, there is no need for a tweeter unless you are a bat.

Bottom line -- unless you are committed to doing things on the cheap, get a pair of 1772's. Strong recommendation.

(You can ignore everything below 1kHz on the graph as this is box and room related. The fact that the two plots lay on top of each over confirms that in this application, the the 1772 is a drop-in for the 207.)

Bob
 

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... The fact that the two plots lay on top of each over confirms that in this application, the the 1772 is a drop-in for the 207.)
Would it be a reasonable assumption that it'll also be a drop in for the Spawn Bruce BVR along with the G, Curvy and 1/2 Chang too?

Will be interesting to see how it compares with other new offerings within it's price range such as the new 8" L. CAO Alnico and AN super 8 Alnico.

Many thanks to you Bob B. for all of the great work thus far ☆☆☆☆☆
 
Would it be a reasonable assumption that it'll also be a drop in for the Spawn Bruce BVR along with the G, Curvy and 1/2 Chang too?

Probably not. A MLTL is much more tolerant to driver parameters than a BR. While the 207 works well in 35L, the 1772 requires 40L. I would presume that any of the Spawn BVR's would require a larger reflex chamber to operate properly with the 1772.

Bob
 
1808 vs. 1772

Cal, you're right. I looked closely at T/S parameters, but not as closely at published FR. I should've known better. So far TB drivers I've used had pretty good match between what they published and what I measured.
1808 impedance looks a bit more rugged then 1772, especially around 900 Hz. That's kind of strange, isn't it? Both drivers have something going on in their FR just above 1kHz. Do you think the cones are different?
For my back-loaded horn I need the 1808. The 1772 Q is too low. I am waiting for a pair to arrive from Meniscus so will find out soon.

Vadim
 
All drivers are suitable for FLH loading over some portion of its BW same as an OB since a FLH is just a fancy folded one, so as a first approximation you can work out how large an OB is required to support the desired F6 to decide if it's size is acceptable.

GM
 
I don't think that's what GM said. He pointed out that all drivers can essentially be used in an FLH at some point or other of it's BW. That's nothing to do with whether it'd sound 'good' or not, whatever 'good' is supposed to mean. That would depend on how well the end system is designed in order to achieve the intended outcome, and presumably, a person would not choose a Seas (or whatever) driver if they didn't like it to start off with.
 
Right, without knowing what 'good' means or the specific driver model and the desired performance goals there's no way to answer such a general question. For good performance IMO, horn speaker design isn't a 'horseshoes and hand grenades' design routine like sealed is where 'in the ballpark' is good enough.

GM
 
This is the first 8" driver I have seen that it essentially flat out to 30* off axis. You can walk around the speakers and the sound remains the same.
......
With the 1772, there is no need for a tweeter unless you are a bat.
.......
Bottom line -- unless you are committed to doing things on the cheap, get a pair of 1772's. Strong recommendation.

That was enough for me.
I am going to grab a pair!
Thank you again, Bob!
 
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